Geordie Shore star Sophie Kasaei has revealed that a botched Brazilian butt lift (BBL) nearly killed her. The 35-year-old reality TV personality shared her harrowing experience on the podcast Happy Mum, Happy Baby, hosted by Giovanna Fletcher.
Kasaei travelled to Turkey in 2016 for a free BBL procedure offered by a clinic. She had been struggling with self-esteem after years of online trolling, which she described as relentless criticism about her appearance. However, the surgery went wrong, and she developed a severe abscess on her left buttock.
Speaking on the podcast, Kasaei said: 'I got a BBL and nearly died. I basically had an abscess growing on my left bum cheek. And it took over my whole body to the point where I was moments away from them saying I was dead.' She recalled being in South Shields Hospital with her family, thinking it might be her goodbye.
Doctors told her they needed to operate immediately, warning that if the abscess burst inside her body, she would die. Even in that critical moment, Kasaei asked the surgeon to make the scar as clean as possible, still worried about her appearance for magazine shoots. She said: 'I was 24. I was ten years on now.'
BBL surgery involves transferring fat from other body parts to the buttocks or inserting implants. Risks include severe infections, necrosis, scarring, and abscesses. Despite these dangers, the procedure remains popular, with demand increasing by 120% year on year, leading many to travel abroad for surgery.
